Last Updated on February 23, 2024 by CREW Editorial
Every homebuilder dreams of the day they’ll “top off” their first condominium, and that day came on September 7th for Crystal Homes at NUVO Condominiums in Oakville.
The occasion also marked the birth of a new neighbourhood, according to Kathy Di Silvetro, president of Crystal Homes, which built NUVO in partnership with Fernbrook Homes. Together, the developers are bringing more than 80 combined years of experience to the project.
“NUVO will bring new, and much-needed, essential services, like daycare, dental, and medical centres to the neighbourhood,” Di Silvestro said.
“The area has long been targeted as a strategic growth area—it will become a walkable, liveable neighbourhood full of parks and, eventually, recreation centres. With developments like NUVO, entertainment options like restaurants will soon follow, enlivening the neighbourhood and allowing residents to live, work and play close to home. NUVO is the major catalyst for that ambition.”
In March of 2023, Oakville pledged 33,000 new homes for the area in a bid to secure provincial funding. But they soon realized that such a lofty feat wouldn’t be easy, and it would take development catalysts like NUVO to meet that goal.
“NUVO is a great contributor to Oakville’s ambition to help the GTA house millions of newcomers over the coming decades,” said Mayor Rob Burton, who attended NUVO’s topping-off party.
Although the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hiking campaign, which saw its policy rate increase ten times since March of last year and caused home sales to decline precipitously, Crystal Homes is fresh off a successful launch in Woodstock.
This development was River & Sky, a master-planned subdivision for which the first phase of units released sold out in mere days. Di Silvestro says name recognition played significant roles in helping both River & Sky and NUVO reach 80% sales in a market marred by buyer reticence.
“At both projects, we had a lot of buyers who have bought homes with us before,” Di Silvestro said. “In the case of NUVO, Oakville has among Canada’s best schools, and a lot of our buyers were young families looking to establish themselves in great catchment areas.”
The neighbourhood is also replete with a slew of parks and community centres, she added.
NUVO is the first of many more developments to come thanks to Oakville’s central location in relation to surrounding urban areas. There is a GO Service station nearby, which provides access to downtown Toronto to the east and Hamiton to the west. There is also the Queen Elizabeth Expressway a couple of kilometres south of the development, and Highways 401 and 407 minutes north.
“NUVO will be the first, but it won’t be the last development to build up this neighbourhood,” Di Silvestro said. “This is one of the immediate GTA’s remaining underdeveloped neighbourhoods, and we’re proud to have been one of the first to get here.”
For further information on NUVO Condos and River & Sky, please click here.
